


The Pain of Grief

by Finn_The_Epic_Leafman



Category: Epic (2013)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-20
Updated: 2014-01-20
Packaged: 2018-01-09 09:27:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1144327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Finn_The_Epic_Leafman/pseuds/Finn_The_Epic_Leafman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A retelling of Tara's death through the eyes of Ronin's right hand man. Note: I believe that Finn, Ronin, and Tara all grew up together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Pain of Grief

I had sensed that the queen had been hurt, just as I knew all the other leafmen had. It felt like a weight had settled in my chest as I lept from branch to branch, eventually getting to the area I knew the queen was in. As I decended, I saw her. Tara, the person Ronin and I had grown up with. I landed on the ground with a 'thump' and the other Leafmen and I crowded around the strange girl that held Tara in her arms. Briefly I wondered if she had been the cause of Tara getting injured, but then my eyes landed on the boggan arrow sticking from her chest and my blood started to boil with anger. 

_Mandrake._

The girl looked too innocent to have had anything to do with it. The way she held the queen seemed almost protective. Then a shout of "Tara" met my ears and my head swiveled around to face Ronin who had jumped off his hummingbird and discarded his helmet, dashing to Tara's side. The exchange that came after that was delicate. The girl seemed to guess that Tara was very important to Ronin and gently handed her over to him. Sadness pulled at my heartstrings when I saw how Ronin cradled Tara in his arms.

Tara then said her last words. 'so serious...' she said, exactly what I thought she would. She always wanted him to smile and often teased him for being so dutiful, I joined in a few time too. I would have laughed at those memories, but now I fought to hold back tears as Tara dissolved right in front of me. I gazed to the sky, my heart feeling like a stone. I watched her disappear. The last light flickered in the sky... and then she was gone. I looked back down, closing my eyes, memories of Tara flashing through my mind. I thought of how carelessly we used to play together with Ronin, of how her and Ronin were my only friends after my father had pretty much rejected me, and how we grew up together. 

I fell into a kneel. It seemed like the best way to honor the queen. I didn't look and didn't really care if the others had followed my actions, I was just trying my best to hold back tears. I heard the crumpling of shriving leaves and a shiver made it's way up my spine. I knew it was the same arrow that had pierced Tara and it was rotting the spot that she had died on. I was the first to get up, gathering enough courage to make the tears dissapear. I had to be strong for the same reason I knew Ronin felt he had to. We had appearances to keep up. I wouldn't judge him if he cried, if he screamed out to the world in agony and sadness, but others would call him weak 

Ronin hadn't moved from the position he was in when Tara died, as if he was in shock. I reached forward and placed my hand on his shoulder without a word accompanying it. I knew that I needed no words, sometimes my presence was enough to calm him. I watched as he looked away and took a deep breath before finally standing. He sighed and then addressed the strange girl that he had seen holding Tara. She tried to remember what the queen had told her and eventually they found the answer: Tara had said to take the pod to Nim Galuu. I stepped forward. 

"The scroll keeper...." I whispered, and Ronin told me that without Tara, we know nothing of the pod, maybe Nim did. I stood unusually stiff as long as his eyes were on me, not letting on how I really felt. I wasn't quite sure where to look, I had my eyes on Ronin most of the time, but I couldn't help but look at the strange girl too. I was listening carefully to what Ronin was saying, though, and I swore that I would do my duty and protect moonhaven. Most of all, I was worried about Ronin. 

"What about you?" I asked, worry showing through my facade. Ronin's mask cracked too and he showed me an expression full of the sadness, anger, and grief he most likely felt, then in a single moment, the mask was back on and he donned his business look, telling me that the boggans won't suspect a leafman traveling alone. Ronin knew that was not what I had met. I wanted to know how he would cope with Tara's death. Determined not to just leave without an answer, I pushed on saying "That's not what I meant" in the soft tone I used to calm him as a kid.

He then did somthing I should have suspected, but didn't. He clasped my shoulder with one of his big hands and said, "I know what you meant" giving a small smile at the end, as if what he really wanted to say was, 'i'll be alright'. There was so much calm emotion in that look, that I believed that everything would be fine. The stone that had settled itself on my heart felt a little less heavy. Then, he said that he'll send world once he reaches Nim's tree and walked away. Immediately, I put those orders Ronin gave me in place, mounting my trusted brown hummingbird, Sorrel, and taking off, heading for Moonhaven.


End file.
